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Pips Story

11 November 2015

Pips Story

Cats Protection branches often have to make very difficult decisions but we believe every cat deserves a chance no matter what the cost , alas this leaves us very short of funds and having to beg for help. When faced with this kitten with jaw fused to her skull and unable to eat we felt we had to do the very best for her and we had to act fast but we can only do this with support of the public, please consider donating to Pips appeal and please share far and wide to raise awareness of our work. Thank You. It was originaly thought that as a young kitten Pip broke her jaw and it very quickly fused so that she was unable to open her mouth more than couple off millimetre so was unable to eat. Specialist treatment and scans is very costly but we wanted to give this young kitty a chance so went ahead as time was of the essence. The specialists have done amazing work and a very talented surgeon has fixed her jaw bone which was completely fused to the skull. Now we have to raise funds for the vet bill and her follow up care. Please consider a small donation. https://www.justgiving.com/broekenjaw/

When Pip arrived into our care she was unable to open her jaw to eat at all and could barely lap, vet examination showed jaw unable to move past a couple of millimetres and advice was to put her to sleep as specialist treatment would be very costly and may not even be possible to fix.

Such a friendly kitten with an appetite for life deserved to live, we thought, so we decided to give her the best chance, at first she had to be syringe fed as she was already very underweight and her teeth and gums were in an appalling state.

Early scan showed the bone fused to her skull as you can see from image below there was quite a large fusion, but look at her little face looking at us as if she knew her fate was in our hands, surely mere money shouldn’t stop us helping her? .

A very talented supervet operated and though a long operation the result was she could now open jaw, lots of fused bone had to be removed as you can see from the 3D images below first one is before second one is after.

Finally Pip was able to eat and is now recovering her teeth and gums are already so much cleaner as she has the ability to open her mouth and chew. Excuse the Mohican haircut its how she had to be shaved for the operation.

Pips biopsy results showed bone fusing was caused by ankylosis which was most likely inherited while in the womb. Pip is indeed a very lucky cat, As Wear Valley & Darlington branch doesn’t have much money a fund raising page was set up on just giving to try and cover her vet costs. https://www.justgiving.com/broekenjaw/